Over 40 percent of young people believe the murder of a prominent healthcare executive justified, according to latest polling.
Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was murdered in cold blood by 26-year-old Luigi Mangioni in New York earlier this month.
While Mangioni’s exact motivations still remain unclear, it appears that the murder was the result of his anger at the American healthcare industry and the refusal of insurance companies to pay for essential care.
A survey conducted by Emerson College found that while the majority of Americans believe that the killing was “unacceptable,” 41 percent of young people believe it was “acceptable.”
The pollster reported:
A majority of voters (68%) think the actions of the killer of the United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, are unacceptable. Seventeen percent find the actions acceptable, while 16% are unsure.
“While 68% of voters overall reject the killer’s actions, younger voters and Democrats are more split — 41% of voters aged 18-29 find the killer’s actions acceptable (24% somewhat acceptable and 17% completely acceptable), while 40% find them unacceptable; 22% of Democrats find them acceptable, while 59% find them unacceptable, this compares to 12% of Republicans and 16% of independents who find the actions acceptable, underscoring shifting societal attitudes among the youngest electorate and within party lines,” Kimball said.
Men were slightly more inclined to find the actions acceptable compared to women: 19% said the actions were acceptable compared to 14% of women.
The murder has led sparked widespread debate about the ethics of the healthcare industry, with many high-ranking politicians showing indifference to the murder or offering a merely lukewarm condemnation.
Among those to play down Mangioni’s crimes was far-left Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who argued that there will always come a point where people “take matters into their own hands.
“We’ll say it over and over,” Warren said in an interview with Joy Reid. “Violence is never the answer.”
“This guy gets a trial who’s allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth, but you can only push people so far, and then they start to take matters into their own hands.”
Sen. @ewarren on the UnitedHealth murderer: “Violence is never the answer. This guy gets a trial who’s allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth. But you can only push people so far. And then they start to take matters into their own hands.” pic.twitter.com/xgtBPqDE0Y
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 11, 2024
Mangioni has been charged with first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, as well a host of other charges.
“There is no heroism in what Mangione did. This was a senseless act of violence,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“Any attempt to rationalize this is vile, reckless and offensive to our deeply held principles of justice,” she added.
